Articles

Participeren jongeren anders ? : Een contextspecifiek antwoord op basis van het Belgische Oosterweelreferendum

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Abstract

According to the advocates of the New Polities thesis youngsters are generally less interested in general elections, but are rather attracted by citizen-initiated referendums that are inspired by ecological, elite-challenging and pro-social motives. However, other scholars contend that the age-related differences that characterize participation in genera! elections are more or less universal because what really matters is how much is at stake. Yet, maybe a middle ground can be found between both perspectives if one explicitly takes into account the conditional nature of the New Polities theoretical framework . Based on exit-poll data regarding participation and vote choice in a Belgian citizen-initiated referendum in three different local contexts we test these conditional hypotheses. Our findings reveal that consistent with the New Polities thesis youngsters participate more and prefer pro-ecology, elite-challenging, and pro-social issue-frames, but only in 'low stakes-contexts' where no NIMBY-interests are at play.

How to Cite:

Thijssen, P., (2013) “Participeren jongeren anders ? : Een contextspecifiek antwoord op basis van het Belgische Oosterweelreferendum”, Res Publica 55(1), 61-84.